The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-11
Written for THE HERALD.
SAVED BY AN ENEMY.
An Episode of the Civil War
in Missouri.
BY GAsKELL.

That was q little the toughest time ]
ever had. You see, party spirit haC
embittered the feelings so much amone
the people that it was unsafe to express
an opinion on almost any subject, fol
you knew not who was for or against
the government. 1t was almost, if moi
quite, as bad not to express an opinion
for then you were looked upon as sus
picious character, who would bear
watching by both Federal and rebel
It made things very uncomfortable, te
say the least, for your next door neighbol
whom you had known and trusted fol-
years, might possibly be the first one to
injurs you, or point suspicion to you,
that would lead to the running off of
your stock, the destruction of your
buildings, If not also the loss of your
life.
My daughter Lilly was quite a. belle
in those days, and young men for miles
around were anxious to win her.
Though but a belle of the backwoods,
she was good girl and not coquette
by any means, and [ must in Justice to
her say she treated pretty much all
alike. But you know there is always one
Ut more that is bound to take offense
ii they are not the favored ones, to the
exclusion of everybody else. So it was
in this case. There was young man
of good presence and of good connec-
tions, with nothing then against his
character, so far as [ had heard, except
E.c.- =
her particular attention. But young
men are usually FESTIVE until their
wild oats" as they call them, are
sowed; and occasional escapades are
rather looked upon as manifestations
of spirit and goaheaditiveness, rather
than of evil inclination. OF course this is,
more or less, false sentiment, yet such
faults we all more or less laugh at, OR
wink at, and we hear time and again
that such and such q prominent man
was very WildIin his younger days-jusJ
as though license and latitude were al
lowed certain persons on account of
superior abilities, or again. that they
pointed Ou5 the future man OF emf
nenCe.
When the civil war broke out between
the north and south, Union sentiments
we're dangerous to avoW in southwest
Gill 1htSSOUI1y HISIo We Gu6u llfGO.
But this young man, John Thornton
by name, made no secret of his senu-
ments and his Ieanings towards the
southern cause. Ali his intimates and
friends were of that way of feeling, and
he had every InducemeDt to side with
them. There was great ignorance down
IN that section about the northern
people. They were thought to be COW
ardly, graSping and money-seeking
persons, who might buster, but who
would not fight. For years past a feel
ing of bitterness against the glorious
old flag had been growing ia violence
and Intensity of hatred, and the des.
cendants OF those who had so braVely,
so nobly, fought with Sumpter and
Marion to win its victories in the revo-
lutionary war, had never learned to
love it as Their fathers did-or if they
ever had SO loved it, that love had be-
come diseased and dimmed in the whirl
eign enemy might have united the
factions again; but with one another
union was impossible until a
trial of strength had been
made, and respect for a foemsn's
proves has been grudgingly won. The
southern planter, proud of his chivslry
and his slaves, rather looked down upon
the laboring masses of the manufactur-
ing north, and counted them worthy
only of being heWers of wood and draw.
ers OF water; fit only to create Injuries
and pleasures fortheir gentle manly con-
sumption. How often had the taunt
been thrown out, IN Congress itself,
that northern men were too cowardly to
tight-too grudgingly mouey-making
to disrupt the friendship that furnished
a market for their wares, and only by
sad, terrible and bloody experience were
they convinced otherwise. 1t took over
four years of desperate fighting and de-
vastating bloodshed to prove to them
that the artizans, the clerks and the
farmers of the north could fizht with a
courage and perseverance equal to their
own and with an indOmitable obstinacy
not to be Vanquished by 70 eats d fail
ure, not coWeQ by the southern impetu.
Gus ardor.
For myself, 1 loved the graz old flag
with its blazing stars ana waving
stripes. Ny grandfather had fought
under 1t in the Revolutionary War and
my father under it in that of 1912, whilst
l had followed its victorious flight
from Vera Cruz until planted in proud
triumph on the gilded halls of the Mon
teZumas. 1t was when | was younger,
GHOuSu IONS IL SILL, out as was, lTOIu
wounds received, a cripple, could no
longer march under It's folds, nor battle
in its behalf. For prudential reasons,
for safety, Stunned all political meet
ings, seldom gave an opinion and wished
to take no active part in the coming
struggle. l wished to let alone and be
let alone. Yet Notwithstanding my
caution, was more than once insulted
by the Young hot-heads of the neigh
borhood; yet still l held my peace, as
much as possible in me lay, for saw
feelings were becoming so bitter that
life would not long be of much value in
the eyes of the contestants.
Times gradually became worse and
worse-the longer the strife continued
the more perilous became my position.
First one party, then the other became
dominant in our neighborhood, as the
armies surged forward and backward |
in the bloody struggle of invasion and
retreat. Bat it was not from the
armies that our greatest dangers
arose. Jaykawkers. bushwhackers
and guerrillas followed in the
wake of the regular forces
andilike'foul carrion birds in the track of
q herd of bison. theY followed, killing,